Responsibility for shop lease

[FlyMeToDunoon]

I have a friend who owns and runs a shop. It has been running at a loss for years and she has a lot of debt. She wants to get out of the business but says she cannot give up the shop because the lease has several years to run and if she merely closed the shop down she would still have to pay rent until the landlord found someone to take it over. In fact she has said in the past that she would have the responsibility of finding a new tenant.
Is this the case?
Is there some way out of the impasse?

Sounds fairly normal

Hi Flyme - I am a property lawyer so hopefully can hlep you. It depends on the terms of the lease - ask your friend whether it has an early ending clause called a break clause. Sometimes this is negotiated in by tenants to give them an early release if ncessary.

If not then she could look to assign or sublet her lease. Assigning means getting someone to take over the lease - this will usually need landlord's consent but this cannot usually be witheld provided the person is ok financially etc. Subletting means that your friend stays tenant but leases the shop down to someone else. Again consent is necessary.

If neither of these seem possible ( bad market and not many would be tenants around ) your firend could try being honest with the landord and see if he'll take the shop back . many do for a pyment or for nothing at all depending on circumstances. The payment if the landlord asks for one can be something like 3 months rent which your friend may feel worth paying.

To reduce cosrts if none of this is possible your friend could at least move out and then would not have to pay business rates any more.

Very sneaky advice here but........ she could move out and "disappear". Depends whether lease in her name or limited company or whatever but , speaking as a landlord's lawyer here,. we have had this done to our clients several times and if it is a limited company that is the tenant they are usually not worth pursuing and landlords won't throw good money after bad. If your friend took the lease in her name it is much more risky as she may ( dpending how much landlord wants to puruse it) face bankruptcy action or bailiffs etc. Many tenants doing this type of moonlight flit move .

Ah thanks. I dont know what kind of lease she has. I will ask her.
She has just sold her flat and is moving in with boyfriend-so could potentially disappear?

Be a bit careful with that advice flyme - it was a bit tongue in cheek - if the landlord is determined ( as he may be in this bad market when there are no other potential tenants areound ) or bloody minded he will find your friend and try to bankrupt her or bailiff her. Not pleasant. IN her situation I would try to sell or sublet the lease and if all else failed then offer it back to th4e landlord.

Don't worry
She isn't answering her phone atm but I am going to call her tomorrow with other info. Thanks